History

Johannesbergs Castle is built on a hill. About 1000 years ago this hill was surrounded by water – the sea reached asfar as to Uppsala, (Långhundraleden).

The meadows that now are surrounding the castle were hence once the sea bottom and the meadows were the coastline and show at lot of ancient relics. The names of the meadows, for instance Fyrisäng, also remind of the old contact with Uppsala.

During the 12th century a chief named Gutti lived here and the whole area became Gutti´s area, later on Gottröra, which is the name of the place today. Gutti divided the area into two parts, the south and the north. The borderline was set between the districts, approximately where the main road is now. Gutti´s two sons, Klun and Mjöle, inherited the valleys. The south part – presently Johannesberg – was called Djursby.

The owner of Djursby during the later part of the 17th century was Johan Leijonhufvud. He gave the estate to a close relative, Adam Lewenhaupt, who named it Johannesberg after Johan Leijonhufvud. Lewenhaupt was a general and field marshal who was known to be late for meetings. The most fatal mistake he made was by being two days late for the ”battle in Poltava”. Lewenhaupt died in Russian captivity and was never to see Johannesberg again.

After Lewenhaupt the estate was owned by different nobility families – Banér, Gyllenstierna, Horn af Åminne and Lagergren. At the end of the 19th century Johannesberg was taken over by a Mr Grönwall, a wholesale dealer. During his time the main building unfortunately burnt down. The owner after Grönwall, Mr Conti, built the present mail building around the turn of the century.

Until the middle of the 1930 decade the estate had many different owners – Sjögren, Hallman and Philipsson. It was then bought by Bergengren, who at the end of the decade owned many estates in Sweden, England and France. Bergengren still is the owner of the agricultural part of Johannesberg.

During World War II Bergengren rented out the main building and several crofters cottages to the Swedish government and under the management of the manager for the Criminal Technical Institution, Harry Söderman, Norwegian refugees were here officially beeing educated to police men. In fact they were educated to join the resistance movement. At the maximum there were about 2500 Norwegians here for education. Many of them have through comrade clubs kept in touch with each other after their return to Norway. They have collected money and this resulted in a monument beeing raised in the castle park at Johannesberg in June 1990. The unveiling ceremony was held by the Norwegian Minister of Defence.

The statue is made of a rare kind of stone that only can be found at a certain place in Norway. The same kind of stone is also used for the monument that was raised by the Norwegians at the place in Normandie where they made the landing at the invasion in 1944. When the war was over, the Norwegians returned to their country and the main building was used as a refugee camp, mostly for refugees from the East. During the decade of 1950 the castle was rented out to the Criminal Care Institution where they had an open prisoning institution mainly for drunk drivers. This institution ceased in the beginning of 1960 and the castle was left without inhabitants and the state of decay began. In 1987 Johannesberg was bought by a private company. It was restored, the two wings were built ant the estate was ready to take into use in the springtime 1989. The golf course with 27 holes was set up and opened in 1991. A club house with swimming pool was ready at the same time.

The castle is owned and operated since 1995 by the family Manfred and Mariette Kuhl.